The individual and his future

“It’s instructive to read what authors wrote about core values a hundred or two hundred years ago, because then you can appreciate what has happened to the culture of a nation. You can grasp the enormous influence of planned propaganda, which changes minds, builds new consensus, and exiles certain disruptive thinkers to the margins of society. You can see what has been painted over, with great intent, in order to promote tyranny that proclaims a greater good for all.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

Here I present several statements about the individual, written in 19th century America. The authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and James Fenimore Cooper were prominent figures. Emerson, in his time, was the most famous.

“All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.” — James Fenimore Cooper

“The less government we have, the better, — the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of [by] formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The former generations acted under the belief that a shining social prosperity was the beatitude of man, and sacrificed uniformly the citizen to the State. The modern mind believed that the nation existed for the individual, for the guardianship and education of every man. This idea, roughly written in revolutions and national movements, in the mind of the philosopher had far more precision; the individual is the world.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” — Henry David Thoreau

“They [conformists] think society wiser than their soul, and know not that one soul, and their soul, is wiser than the whole world…Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members….Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist…. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Can you imagine, today, any of these statements gaining traction in the public mind, much less the mainstream media?

Immediately, there would be virulent pushback, on the grounds that unfettered individualism equals brutal greed, equals (hated) capitalism, equals inhumane indifference to the plight of the less fortunate, equals callous disregard for the needs of the group.

The 19th-century men who wrote those assertions would be viewed with hostile suspicion, as potential criminals, as potential “anti-government” outliers who should go on a list. They might have terrorist tendencies.

“Most people today believe that an individual is a person with an independent and distinct identification. This, however, is a myth.”

Callero is claiming an absence of any uniqueness from person to person. He’s asserting there is no significant distinction between any two people. There aren’t two individuals to begin with. They’re a group.

These are the extreme conformists Emerson was referring to a century and a half ago.

Unable to partake in anything resembling clear thought, such people salute the flag of the Collective, blithely assuming it means “whatever is best for everyone.” Such questions as “who defines ‘best’” and “who engineers this outcome” are beyond their capacity to make distinctions. They rest their proud case in vagueness.

Without realizing it, they are tools of a program. They’re foot soldiers in a ceaseless campaign to promote collectivism (dictatorship from the top) under the guise of equality.

Let me repeat one of Emerson’s statements: “The antidote to this abuse of [by] formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.”The corollary: If there is no widespread growth of individuals and their independent thoughts, actions, and moral consciousness, if they don’t widen their horizons and spheres of influence, then in the long run what check is there on government?

Demeaning the individual is, in fact, an intentional operation designed to keep government power intact and expand its range.

Consider this question: If all opposition to overbearing, intrusive, and illegitimate government were contained in organized groups, and if there were no independent “Emersonian” individuals, what would be the outcome?

That is a future without promise, without reason, without imagination, without life-force.

That is why the individual remains vital; above, beyond, and through any blizzard of propaganda.

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

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7 comments on “The individual and his future”

Not only is there individual distinctness and power but it also means having individual responsibility too. Systems are created when individuals don’t want individual responsibility. Systems can’t be responsible since they are a thing, not a living being. Systems are therefore usually set up as an automaticity—unthinking, unreasoning, stimulus-response. Additionally, not everything is intentionally planned to ‘control you’, such as gov’ts. or systems or groups. Sheer stupidity or less than perfect sanity of human beings itself would be sufficient to screw things up without necessarily any conspiratorial intent. Of course a lot of such things ARE intentionally created and/or done to control others. That’s as much a fact as stupidity or less than perfect sanity.
There can be value in groups, even gov’ts (just a bigger group created to manage bigger areas and activities than one individual could manage as easily). But like everything else, humans can and do corrupt things to a great degree, and this would include groups and gov’ts.

In Emerson’s day, most people did not work in a corporate or bureaucratic environment as they do today. The enticement of more money and security lures most people to make the “smart” choice when deciding on their future work life. Thus, a brilliant genius of a concert pianist will be pressured by his friends and religion to give it up and pursue an MBA (absolutely true story). He was being too selfish, you see. His duty is to make more money, to be a productive member of society. People let money make their life decisions for them, and this is called smart.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” — Henry David Thoreau

Now this fellow knew about the individual; I got turned on to him by a young Californian, I met back the olden days. When men were men, and women were women.

He became my friend…
And so did the Californian.
He was driving around North America in an old Woody he fixed up, he kept that Woody purring like a kitten; the Californian!… with a big golden lab called David, he named the dog after Thoreau.
A gentle soul…the dog, that is.
His name was David too…the Californian.

I was hitch hiking across North America with an albino alsatian name Maxwell.
The dog found me on the road hitch hiking, and stayed with me all the way across Canada, until Banff, Alberta.
And then left with girl I met, who stayed for a while.

I had just escaped a month and half before from the nut house in Hog town.
I wasn’t taking well to obedience training.
Sort of ah ‘one flew over the cuckoo nest’ kinda thing.

The dogs met, having a piss and play, and that brought us all together.
The David’s and I became fast friends.
And to bring a long story short.

He introduced me to the philosophy of the writer over a camp fire, and a lot of weed.

I haven’t read Thoreau in a number of years now.
Thoreau inspired me to live for a year in a cabin in the woods near Banff.

Thoreau was an artist, from the top drawer kinda artist. And a naturalist. Who love the wild things, and the green growing.

I will remain this, even when the group is right.
I will defy the group till the end. In spite of it being right.
Group just never was for me at all.
Group was always wrong for me.

Sold my convent last week…it broke my heart…sold a thousand dollar painting for a penny. To the most despicable of men. A pawn shop owner.
He doesn’t know what I know though, she will make his life hell.

But, I must save what is left of the artist in me.

Time for something new, never done before, still searching for the master work.
Gonna buy ‘a little cabin in the woods’, and make art all day long.

Enough of this bullshit world.
Pretty soon it is gonna be a Paris ever single day of the week.

The fashion industry has a lot to do with this. I was taking a walk the other day at the time the students leave High school. I was shocked to watch them, they all looked alike.

All dressed in black. Black leggings and boots, black coats with a hood, carrying their back black pad on their back, and they were all texting on their smart phones. I was stunned!

I sat down on a bench at a bus stop and kept watching them. All the girls had long straight dyed black hair. I felt I was living in a zombie world.

On my way back home, I saw a group of kindergarten children all tied together with a long rope, taking a walk on the sidewalk with a monitor in the front of the row, and one on the back. The image that came to my mind, was prisoners all chained down.

What kind of a society are we living in? How can parents accept that? It blows my mind.